Pawar used Balwa`s plane, alleges Maha Oppn leader

Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly Eknath Khadse on Thursday alleged that Union Minister Sharad Pawar had travelled on a plane owned by a company of Shahid Balwa, under arrest in the 2G spectrum allocation scam,.

Mumbai: Leader of the Opposition in the
Maharashtra Assembly Eknath Khadse on Thursday alleged that Union
Minister Sharad Pawar had travelled on a plane owned by a
company of Shahid Balwa of DB Realty, under arrest in the 2G
spectrum allocation scam, to Dubai last year.

Making the allegation in the House during a debate on
budgetary demands of the Home department, Khadse said Pawar,
his wife Pratibha, Punjab Cricket Association president I S
Bindra, BCCI president Shashank Manohar and his wife Varsha
had flown to Dubai on February 8, 2010 along with Balwa by Eon
Aviation, a subsidiary of the DB group.
ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat and Vinod Goenka of Dynamix were
also in the aircraft.

Claiming he had documents from the Air Traffic Control to
prove the accusation, Khadse said if film financier Bharat
Shah could be put behind bars for two years on the charge of
talking to Dawood Ibrahim on telephone, why action should not
be taken against Vinod Goenka, chairman of DB Realty, for his
relations with the fugitive underworld don.

"Goenka is seen hugging Dawood at the marriage of his
(Dawood) daughter in the wedding CDs," Khadse alleged.

Apart from Pawar and his wife, Khadse said, Union Heavy
Industries Minister Praful Patel and state Rural Development
Minister Jayant Patil, had also used Eon planes.

"Builder Jayant Shah, a close associate of former chief
minister Ashok Chavan travelled by Eon Aviation aircraft to
Nanded in January last year, while On February 1, 2010, Praful
Patel and Dilip Deshmukh, brother of Union Rural Development
Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh flew to Nagpur."

Khadse alleged that on April 10 last year, Praful Patel
travelled with Balwa and Goenka to Bangalore.

"What are their links with Balwa? I want to know whether
they travelled on Eon Aviation planes with him or not," he
said.
NCP was quick to rubbish Khadse`s claims, with state
spokesperson Madan Bafna telling PTI that Khadse was "in the
habit of staying in limelight by making baseless allegations."

"By any means, Khadse wants to be in the news. This is why
he has levelled such baseless allegations," Bafna said.

Earlier also, the opposition claimed its had "truckloads"
of evidence linking Pawar with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim
but no such thing has been proved, Bafna said.

Home Minister R R Patil is likely to respond to the
charges levelled by Khadse when he replies to the discussion
on the budgetary demands of his department.

Pawar himself had also trashed accusations about his links
with Balwa.